THE EFFECT OF PARTICLE SIZE AND BREWING TIME ON THE INFUSION PROPERTIES OF TEA BLENDS

Teas offered for sale are usually blend of different kinds of teas. Some requirements such as consumer demands, price, quality and bulk density reveals the need for blending of teas. Sometimes, teas from different countries might be used in blends. In this study, a common black tea in market was used. The tea sieved with a sieve set (2mm, 1.4mm, 1mm, 500μm) and separated according to particle size. These were brewed for 15, 20 and 25 minutes. The particle size and brewing times had significant effects on diffusion. The highest extract, phenolic content and turbidity values were determined in infusion of the smallest particle at 25 minutes. There was no significant effect of brewing time on caffeine, theaflavin, thearubigin, total color and %brightness values, however, the particle size has significant (P <0.001) effect on these parameters. Results showed that the analysed sample is a blend and it most probably contains foreign teas